Apple’s patents are worth pennies per feature

Samsung and Apple have participated in more than their fair share of court battles with one another, and the cases mostly have revolved around Apple’s patents.

However, Yale professor of economics and finance, Judith Chevalier, has deemed the worth of Apple’s patents as negligible, and that the Cupertino based tech giant is greatly overestimating the value of its patents.

By using Apple’s own accounting for its iOS releases, Chevalier came to the conclusion that the patents should only come out to $1.75 per each Samsung device sold. Apple, however, is asking for $40, but Chevalier claims that only a fraction of the features Apple claimed Samsung infringed upon should be included in the settlement.

Chevalier based a lot of her research on 66 reviews from 22 media outlets that delved into the features of the iPhone. She also used some of Apple’s own math against them: saying that because Apple boasts anywhere from 100-200 new features for each iPhone release, and that the new features account for about $10-$25 in revenue for Apple per release. This comes out to about 5-25 cents a feature; much less than what Apple is asking for.

We’ll see if Chevalier’s testimony on behalf of Samsung will do enough to sway the court, as the jury will decide next week whether or not Samusng will have to fork over cash to Apple for patent infringements.